It’s finally time to play ball!
Last Oct. 9, I was among the least unhappy baseball fans in America. I was far from happy — just not unhappy.
The Pittsburgh Pirates had just done their best impersonation of a juggernaut, and they may have gotten away with it if it hadn’t been for those fellas out in St. Louis. Not that I’m counting, but that was five months, three weeks and nearly a day ago.
Today commences a brand new Major League season, and I’m rarin’ to get this thing going. It’s almost like a national holiday for me, one that could last until November.
Baseball fans will start the season in long-sleeves and end it in overcoats, with a little pinch of summer in between.
According to baseball-reference.com, each Major League team throws an average of 146 pitches per game. That means over an entire 162 game season, there could be as many 1,419,120 pitches thrown by all of teams combined during the 2014 season. Pardon me if I sit on the edge of my seat for as many of them as possible. I just happen to love the game.
To me, it’s a meaningful respite from the summertime legislative vacuum that occurs on Capitol Hill each summer. (Or winter or fall or spring, for that matter these days).
Pirates fans now know that the much talked-about two-decade “curse” has been lifted, and it’s time to think about winning a pennant again. But I don’t expect the annual pessimism to erode just yet. If the Bucs don’t get off to a good start, impatience will likely set in faster than you can say, “Fire Clint Hurdle.”
Those skeptical fans should know that early season records don’t mean much. The Pirates started the 2011 season with a 5-3 record. They ended it 24 games out of first place. Last season, they opened the season with a 1-5 record, but they ended the season only three games out of first. You never know, do you?
The one thing you can count on this season, if you plan to visit PNC Park, is fewer available seats that cost more than they did last season. My wife and I went to three games in one week, (in May) last season. The combined total of those three games was about $70.
That won’t happen this season. That’s simply the price of a winning/pennant contending baseball team. I don’t mind. It doesn’t matter that it requires a co-signer and a credit reference to be able to walk away from the refreshment stand with a box of popcorn and a hot dog at PNC Park, either. I pay at least that much when I go to the movies, and I don’t get to keep those wonderful, ad-filled programs and those silly bobble-heads — that don’t look anything like the players for whom they’re named.
You’ve just got to take your pleasures where you can find it, I guess. Having a winning baseball team in our midst allows us to find new heroes each season.
Oh, there are the perennial heroes — Andrew McCutchen, Neil Walker and Pedro Alvarez. But there’s always room for a few more. I’m picking Starling Marte. In the words of another of my heroes, Bob Prince, “He’s got a cannon!” (for an arm.)
Last season, Marte’s first full season in the majors, he rivaled the first full season of Roberto Clemente in a number of offensive categories.
Marte had more hits (143-121); scored more runs (83-48); had more doubles (26-23); had nearly as many triples (10-11); more than twice as many home runs (12-5); had 39 more stolen bases (41-2); he had a higher batting average (.280-.255), and he was walked more times (25-18) than Clemente had been in 1955 — while playing in only 11 more games (135-124).
I don’t expect to see Mr. Clemente incarnate in left field for the Pirates this season, but Marte does remind me of him.
After all, it’s opening day. A day for hope, renewal along with lots of pomp and circumstance. The only thing left to say is — PLAY BALL!
Edward A. Owens is a three-time Emmy Award winner and 20-year veteran of television news. Email him at freedoms@bellatlantic.net